Pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepines (PBDs), a group of potent naturally occurring antitumour antibiotics from various Streptomyces species, are of considerable interest because of their ability to recognize and subsequently form covalent bonds to specific base sequence of double strand DNA (Dervan, P. B. Science 1989, 232, 464.; Hurley, L. H. J. Med. Chem. 1989, 32, 2027.; Thurston, D. E.; Thompson, A. S. Chem. Br. 1990, 26, 767). Well-known members of this group include anthramycin, DC-81, sibiromycin, tomamycin, chicamycin and neothramycin of A and B (Hurley, L. H. J. Antibiot. 1977, 30, 349.; Schimizu, K.; Kawamoto, I.; Tomita, F.; Morimoto, M.; Fujimoto, K. J. Antibiot. 1982, 35, 992.; Lown, J. W.; Joshua, A. V. Biochem. Pharmacol. 1979, 28, 2017.; Thurston, D. E.; Bose, D. S. Chem. Rev. 1994, 94, 433.; Molina, P.; Diaz, I.; Tarraga, A. Tetrahedron 1995, 51, 5617.; Kamal, A.; Rao, N. V. Chem. Commun. 1996, 385.; Kamal, A.; Reddy, B. S. P.; Reddy, B. S. N. Tetrahedron Lett. 1996, 37, 6803). The cytotoxicity and antitumour activity of these agents are attributed to their property of sequence selective covalent binding to the N2 of guanine in the minor groove of duplex DNA via an acid-labile aminal bond to the electrophilic imine at the N10-C11 position (Kunimoto, S.; Masuda, T.; Kanbayashi, N.; Hamada, M.; Naganawa, H.; Miyamoto, M.; Takeuchi, T.; Unezawa, H. J. Antibiot., 1980, 33, 665.; Kohn, K. W. and Speous, C. L. J. Mol. Biol., 1970, 51, 551.; Hurley, L. H.; Gairpla, C. and Zmijewski, M. Biochem. Biophys. Acta., 1977, 475, 521.; Kaplan, D. J. and Hurley, L. H. Biochemistry, 1981, 20, 7572). The molecules have a right-handed twist, which allows them to follow the curvature of the minor groove of B-form double-stranded DNA spanning three base pairs. A recent development has been the linking of two PBD units through their C-8 positions to give bisfunctional-alkylating agents capable of cross-linking DNA (Thurston, D. E.; Bose, D. S.; Thomson, A. S.; Howard, P. W.; Leoni, A.; Croker, S. J.; Jenkins, T. C.; Neidle, S, and Hurley, L. H. J. Org. Chem. 1996, 61, 8141).

Recently, PBD dimers have been developed that comprise of two C2-exo-methylene substituted DC-81 subunits tethered through their C-8 position via an inert propanedioxy linker (Gregson, S. J.; Howard, P. W.; Hartely, J. A.; Brooks, N. A.; Adams, L. J.; Jenkins, T. C.; Kelland, L. R. and Thurston, D. E. J. Med. Chem. 2001, 44, 737). A non-cross-linking mixed imine-amide PBD dimers have been synthesized that have significant DNA binding ability and potent antitumour activity (Kamal, A.; Ramesh, G. Laxman, N.; Ramulu, P.; Srinivas, O.; Neelima, K.; Kondapi, A. K.; Srinu, V. B.; Nagarajaram, H. M. J. Med. Chem. 2002, 45, 4679). However, the clinical efficacy for these antibiotics is hindered by several limitations, such as poor water solubility, cardiotoxicity, development of drug resistance and metabolic inactivation. Due to the excellent activity of these molecules, there is need to develop novel derivatives which are devoid of above limitations.
Benzothiazoles are small synthetic molecules that contain a benzene ring fused to a thiazole ring. These simple molecules have shown remarkable antitumour properties and some of them are undergoing evaluation in clinical trials (Shi, D.-F.; Bradshaw, T. D.; Wrigley, S.; McCall, C. J.; Lelieveld, P.; Fichtner, I.; Stevens, M. F. G. J. Med. Chem. 1996, 39, 3375; Kashiyama, E.; Hutchinson, I.; Chua, M.-S.; Stinson, S. F.; Phillips, L. R.; Kaur, G.; Sausville, E. A.; Bradshaw, T. D.; Westwell, A. D.; Stevens, M. F. G. J. Med. Chem. 1999, 42, 4172; Hutchinson, I.; Chua, M.-S.; Browne, H. L.; Trapani, V.; Bradshaw, T. D.; Westwell, A. D.; Stevens, M. F. G. J. Med. Chem. 2001, 44, 1446). Recently Westwell and coworkers have prepared a series of benzothiazole derivatives and evaluated for anticancer activity, One of these analogues has shown excellent anticancer activity (Mortimer, C. G.; Wells, G.; Crochard, J.-P.; Stone, E. L; Bradshaw, T. D.; Stevens, M. F. G.; Westwell, A. D. J. Med. Chem. 2006, 49, 179). The structurally related benzoxazoles have also been reported to possess anticancer activity (Kumar, D.; Jacob, M. R.; Reynold, M. B.; Kerwin, S. M. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2002, 10, 3994; Gong, B.; Hong, F.; Kohm, C.; Bonham, L.; Klein, P. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2004, 14, 1455). Based on the potent anticancer activity of pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepines, benzothiazoles and benzoxazoles, new PBD hybrids have been designed and synthesized by linking benzothiazole and benzoxazole moieties at C8-position of pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepine with varying alkane and alkylamide spacers.